Auschwitz-Birkenau And Hungarian Jewry

The following pages will tell of my father's side of the family who were mostly exterminated by the Nazi War Machine.My father survived 4 different German Labor Camps.Almost 90 % of the Kratz Family were killed by the Nazis in World War 2.Close to 90 % of all the Jewish people who lived under Hungary's rule perished and mostly all died in the last year of the War.The Kratz family settled in the small village of Luh sometime in the early 18TH Century.Luh is now called Lug and is located in the Ukraine.Luh was also called Tisza-Lunka or just Lunka by the Hungarians.I have also heard the village called Leh.Later on in my gallery I will provide all the family photos one after ther other as well as a detailed genealogy as given to me by my cousin Nachi Keren (Kratz).

My name is Jordan Kratz and I am the webmaster of this site and also the founder of the band Big Meat Hammer.I have put this site up in rememberance of all the relatives and family friends I will never get the chance to know.90% of the Jews in Carpathia were destined to become matrys.........turned in by their own neighbors and butchered by the unholy Nazis.Learn here then the true story of Jewish Life in Carpathia before and during World War Two.

     Luh was located in the old Austro-Hungarian Empire.The village sits right on the banks of the Tisza river.The largest city close by is Sziget located in Romania.Luh was in Carpathia otherwise called Ruthenia.This was also the Eastern Part of the old Czech Republic founded after World War One.The population of Luh was mostly made up of Czech,Jewish,Hungarian,and Carpathian Ethnic groups.Before World War 2 there were about 200 Jews living in or around Luh.Luh had a synagogue,a religious school,religious bath house,and Jewish Butcher.There were many Orthodox Jews who practised religion devoutly.

                   Carpathian Jewish Storeowner

           Picture of a Wooden Synagogue

        A Talmud Scholar From Carpathia

     My grandfather Benjamin Kratz served in World War One under the Astro-Hungarian empire.He spent sometime as a POW under the Russians.After the war he owned a store in Luh and later a second store was opened in the nearby village of Velichy Bochov.My grandmother was from Sziget and her family is the Schreter family.My father has told me how growing up he went to two schools.One was the public school all children went to and he also went to a Jewish religious school each schoolday.Most Jewish children also did this.

   Over the next pages you will be shown images and maps as well as a few surviving Kratz Family photos.Historical information on this region will also be put here telling you the facts of life in Carpathia.

      Beri Kratz...........Michael Kratz........Benjamin Kratz  Mid 1930's

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